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Abstract:

A user interface method comprises: causing a plurality of first objects
to be displayed; causing one or more second objects to be displayed, each
second object associated on the display with one or more of the first
objects; and, in response to an input, causing at least one of the first
objects to be displayed with decreased prominence and causing at least
one second object that is associated with the first object to be
displayed such that the relative decrease in prominence of the second
object, if any, is less than the relative decrease in prominence of the
first object.

Claims:

1. A user interface method comprising: causing a plurality of first
objects to be displayed; causing one or more second objects to be
displayed, each second object associated on the display with one or more
of the first objects; and, in response to an input, causing at least one
of the first objects to be displayed with decreased prominence and
causing at least one second object that is associated with the first
object to be displayed such that the relative decrease in prominence of
the second object, if any, is less than the relative decrease in
prominence of the first object.

2. A method according to claim 1, wherein causing an object to be
displayed with decreased prominence comprises causing the object to
appear smaller or to disappear and/or causing the object to be fully or
partially obscured.

3. A user interface method comprising: causing a plurality of first
objects to be displayed; causing one or more second objects to be
displayed, each second object associated on the display with one or more
of the first objects; and, in response to an input, causing the display
of objects to change, wherein at least one of the second objects remains
fully or partially displayed regardless of whether or not the one or more
first objects associated with the second object remain displayed.

4. (canceled)

5. A method according to claim 1, comprising, in response to the input,
causing at least one of the first objects to be displayed at a changed
position and causing at least one second object that is associated with
the first object to be displayed at a position such that the association
of the first and second objects is maintained.

6. A method according to claim 1, wherein the association is the result
of relative positions of the first and second objects and/or a display
element fully or partially linking the first and second objects.

7. A method according to claim 1, comprising, in response to an input in
relation to one of the second objects, causing an indication emphasising
the association of the second object with the one or more associated
first objects to be displayed.

8. (canceled)

9. (canceled)

10. A method according to claim 1, comprising causing the first objects
to be arranged sequentially in a loop, the loop being fully or partially
displayed.

11. (canceled)

12. A method according to claim 1, comprising: causing a view of a
three-dimensional arrangement of the first objects to be fully or
partially displayed, the view being two- or three-dimensional; and in
response to a further input, adjusting an angle of the view such that the
first objects occupy less space on the display.

13. (canceled)

14. (canceled)

15. A method according to claim 1, wherein each second object provides an
indication of one or more properties of the one or more associated first
objects or provides an indication of a boundary between one or more first
objects having one or more properties and a further one or more first
objects having one or more different properties.

16. (canceled)

17. (canceled)

18. (canceled)

19. (canceled)

20. A method according to claim 1, comprising: in response to an input in
relation to one of the first or second objects, changing the state of the
first or second object respectively from an unselected state to a
selected state; in response to the change in state of the first object,
causing an indication thereof to be displayed in relation to the first
object and/or at least one associated second object; and, in response to
the change in state of the second object, causing an indication thereof
to be displayed in relation to the second object and/or the one or more
associated first objects.

21. A method according to claim 1, comprising, in response to an input in
relation to one of the first or second objects, respectively causing the
first object or the second object and the one or more associated first
objects to be displayed with increased prominence.

22. A method according to claim 11, wherein causing an object to be
displayed with increased prominence comprises causing the object to
appear or to appear larger, causing the object to be fully or partly
unobscured, causing the object to be displayed more centrally, and/or
causing the object to be displayed more in a foreground.

23. A method according to claim 1, comprising, in response to an input in
relation to one of the plurality of first objects, causing a further
plurality of first objects and a further one or more second objects to be
displayed.

24. (canceled)

25. (canceled)

26. A method according to claim 13, comprising causing the plurality and
each further plurality of first objects to be displayed concurrently in
respective loops, wherein the loops are concentric or coaxial or have
parallel axes, wherein, in the case of parallel axes, the axis of the
loop corresponding to the further plurality of first objects is aligned
with the first object in relation to which the input was made.

27. A method according to claim 1, comprising causing an element to be
displayed, the element comprising an ordered arrangement of items, each
item corresponding to one of the second objects or one of the first
objects or a property thereof, and further comprising an indication of
which one of the first or second objects is being displayed with most
prominence.

28. A method according to claim 15, comprising, in response to an input
in relation to the element, causing at least one of the second objects
and the one or more associated first objects to be displayed at a changed
position.

29. A method according to claim 15, wherein the element is displayed
instead of the one or more second objects.

30. A method according to claim 1, comprising causing one or more lists
or assemblies of words or symbols to be displayed, each list or assembly
of words or symbols comprising a plurality of items, each item
corresponding to one of the first objects or a property thereof.

31. A method according to claim 18, comprising, in response to an
indication being displayed in relation to one of the first objects,
causing an indication to be displayed in relation to the corresponding
item.

32. (canceled)

33. A method according to claim 18, comprising, in response to an input
in relation to one of the items, taking the same action as the action to
be taken in response to an input in relation to the corresponding first
object.

34. A method according to claim 20, comprising, in response to an input
in relation to one of the first objects or the corresponding item:
causing a further plurality of first objects and a further one or more
second objects to be displayed instead of the plurality of first objects
and the one or more second objects; and causing a further list or
assembly of words or symbols corresponding to the further plurality of
first objects to be displayed in addition to the list or assembly of
words or symbols corresponding to the plurality of first objects.

35. (canceled)

36. (canceled)

37. A method according to claim 1, comprising, in response to an input in
relation to one of the first objects, determining a query based upon one
or more properties of the first object and causing a further plurality of
first objects and a further one or more second objects to be displayed,
wherein the further plurality of first objects have one or more
properties that match the query, wherein the plurality of first objects
and the further plurality of first objects correspond to different levels
in a hierarchical organisation of the data elements.

38. (canceled)

39. (canceled)

40. (canceled)

41. (canceled)

42. A method according to claim 1, comprising: causing a plurality of the
first objects to be displayed, wherein the first objects are arranged in
accordance with one or more properties of the first objects; causing the
one or more second objects to be displayed, each second object associated
with one or more of the first objects, wherein each second object
provides an indication of a further one or more properties of the one or
more associated first objects; and in response to the input, causing at
least one of the first objects to be displayed at a changed position and
causing at least one second object that is associated with the first
object to be displayed at a position such that the association of the
first and second objects is maintained.

43. (canceled)

44. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising a computer
program comprising instructions which, when executed by a processor,
cause the processor to perform a method according to claim 1.

45. (canceled)

46. User interface apparatus comprising: at least one processor; and
memory comprising a computer program, wherein the at least one processor
and the memory and the computer program are configured to make the
apparatus: cause a plurality of first objects to be displayed; cause one
or more second objects to be displayed, each second object associated on
the display with one or more of the first objects; and, in response to an
input, cause at least one of the first objects to be displayed with
decreased prominence and causing at least one second object that is
associated with the first object to be displayed such that the relative
decrease in prominence of the second object, if any, is less than the
relative decrease in prominence of the first object.

47. (canceled)

48. (canceled)

49. Apparatus according to claim 25, wherein each second object provides
an indication of one or more properties of the one or more associated
first objects.

50. Apparatus according to claim 25, wherein the at least one processor
and the memory and the computer program are configured to make the
apparatus, in response to an input in relation to one of the first or
second objects, respectively cause the first object or the second object
and the one or more associated first objects to be displayed with
increased prominence.

51. Apparatus according to claim 25, wherein the at least one processor
and the memory and the computer program are configured to make the
apparatus, in response to an input in relation to one of the plurality of
first objects, cause a further plurality of first objects and a further
one or more second objects to be displayed.

52. Apparatus according to claim 25, wherein the at least one processor
and the memory and the computer program are configured to make the
apparatus cause one or more lists or assemblies of words or symbols to be
displayed, each list or assembly of words or symbols comprising a
plurality of items, each item corresponding to one of the first objects
or a property thereof.

53. (canceled)

54. (canceled)

55. (canceled)

56. A system comprising: a server comprising a user interface apparatus
comprising: at least one processor; and memory comprising a computer
program, wherein the at least one processor and the memory and the
computer program are configured to make the apparatus: cause a plurality
of first objects to be displayed cause one or more second objects to be
displayed, each second object associated on the display with one or more
of the first objects; and, in response to an input, cause at least one of
the first objects to be displayed with decreased prominence and causing
at least one second object that is associated with the first object to be
displayed such that the relative decrease in prominence of the second
object, if any, is less than the relative decrease in prominence of the
first object; and a client device configured to communicate with the
server via a network.

57. (canceled)

Description:

FIELD

[0001] The invention relates to a user interface and, in particular, the
findability (locating, accessing, selecting and display) of contextually
related and hierarchically grouped data elements and information.

BACKGROUND

[0002] Many sophisticated GUI's (Graphical User Interface) and display
systems have attempted to cope with the problem of making contextually
related and sequentially or hierarchically organised data and information
`findable` in a visually intuitive, meaningful and user accessible way
particularly when displaying many grouped visual digital data elements
representing categories, directories, folders, files and the navigational
or functional elements of a website, application or operating system.
Traditional displays however, must severely limit the number of data
elements that can be displayed on a screen without visually confusing the
user. In this patent the visual representations of such data elements to
be displayed to a user on a screen, including but not limited to those
just listed, will be referred to as `icons`. The use of the words
`screen` or `display` will mean any device that actively or dynamically
presents digital data visually to a user and with which the user may
interact using typically a pointing device such as a mouse, touch
sensitive screen or other user interactive device.

[0003] From the users perspective icons can represent, often in a simple
stylised way, individual or grouped multimedia items such as video and
audio items, photo's, retail items such as books or hotels, personal
information items such as contacts etc. They may also represent user
interface `windows`, website links (URLs), process control elements,
electronic program guide (EPG) data or video game elements or indeed any
individual data element that a user may need to view or interact with on
a screen. In all these cases the icons are visual links to static or
functional (control) data elements residing within or connected to the
storage and processing elements of the equipment being used. Such icons
may represent nodes in a data tree from which a user can select a series
of static or active elements within different levels of the tree to
locate a particular element or functional goal. This search may be done
in a structured, goal oriented way or in a more random `browsing`
fashion.

[0004] A typical presentation of such icons to a user could be the
arrangement on a screen of the results of a user database query. Since
the beginnings of such screen data presentations, one of the principle
methods to display results has been in a manner resembling a printed
paper catalogue: Multiple icons or graphic data elements are laid out on
the users screen as one or more consecutive `pages` or screens populated
with a static `flat` 2D linear array consisting of rows and columns of
icons containing images, symbols and/or text frequently with additional
descriptive or title text adjacent to the icons. With such presentations
a user may normally view only one page or screen at a time. FIG. 1a,
indicates the flat 2D linear array approach.

[0005] More recently methods have been revealed in which icons not only
move around the x-y axes of a flat screen but are dynamically resized as
if moving in the third `z` dimension perpendicular to the screen surface.
Icons in these displays often appear to follow normal rules of
perspective and can appear to move in front of and obscure each other.
Typical of this type of icon presentation is the rotating 3d Carousel
device which has appeared in many forms and suffers from similar problems
common to the 2d arrangements described above: with more than just a few
icons in a carousel, only those icons at the `front` of the device are
clearly visible--those at the sides and towards the rear are reduced in
size and stacked on top of each other concealing some or all of their
contents and any contextual boundaries or relationships between adjacent
and non adjacent icons. FIG. 1c demonstrates this type of carousel
arrangement.

[0006] Even in those dynamic 3d systems that provide a facility to reveal
individual title or descriptive information about each icon as it is
`moused` over by the users cursor, the same failing is apparent: It is
extremely difficult in a reasonable time to establish the contextual
boundaries and relationships between adjacent and non adjacent icons and
groups of related icons in such a display and thus visually locate areas
of the presentation where icons of relevance to the user may be found.
This creates a substantial load on the users cognitive and memorising
abilities. User success with such systems is often a matter of chance.
Anecdotal evidence and data derived from usability studies suggest users
can feel overwhelmed or suffer from `cognitive overload`. This failing of
such prior art can often result in wasted time, frustration and users
giving up before fulfillment is reached. In a commercial environment this
can represent lost sales and in more critical applications the
consequences can obviously have a far greater importance.

[0007] Recent dynamic 3D (i.e. having visual depth cues such as apparent
or `virtual` perspective, depth and motion) displays employing such
moving `streams` or `trains` of multiple icons have enabled users to
browse through a continuous linear or a rotating `Carousel` presentation
display in which the arrangement of icons can move under user or system
control. In such presentations the icon streams are either looped or
non-looped: Looped icon displays include continuous and circular
`carousels` or linear streams of icons with provision for those icons
that stream off one side of the screen to reappear from the other side of
the screen. Non-Looped displays do not provide for icons to reappear--the
user must move the icon stream in the reverse direction to review icons.
Two of the most prominent examples to date of 3D icon presentations are
the `linear` style presentations of iTunes `Coverflow` (Apple Inc.) (see
FIG. 1d) and the open source `Cooliris` (FIG. 1e) which have appeared
recently on websites and other applications. Both display methods employ
linear, non looped user controlled single or multilayered arrays, streams
or `walls` of icons, often numbering in the hundreds, arranged either
like a spread out `deck of cards` flowing from one side of the screen to
the other under user control or a multilayered flat wall of images
streaming towards and past the user. The `Coverflow` style `deck of
cards` arrangement has a central position in the stream where icons
enlarge and spacing between icons increases causing the `deck` to appear
to open out thus allowing each icon in turn to be presented to the user
in a `front facing` position, fully revealing its contents. In this way
the user can examine in a serial manner, each icon in the display. With
such systems the user generally controls icon movement by means of a
`mouse` or other pointing device employing a clicking and dragging method
or more recently with a touch screen. With the Coverflow arrangement,
unless the number of icons is small, icon visibility to either side of
the central position become more and more restricted as icons are stacked
up on each other increasingly concealing the contents of those behind
them. With a small number of icons it is possible to give each icon a
title or very short description but as the number of icons increases the
display of descriptive or title text is usually restricted to a single
front position only. Alternatively a small `pop-up` text window
(sometimes known as a `tool-tip) appears as the user's cursor is
positioned over individual icons (a technique known as `mousing` over).
With the flat moving array arrangement typified by `Cooliris`, the icon
array moves as a multi-level wall of icons under the users control.

[0008] Findability--The primary problem for users with all such currently
disclosed flat, 2D or 3D linear or looped multi-icon presentations is a
lack of visibility of the icons, particularly when there are a large
numbers of them overlaying each other as demonstrated in FIGS. 1b, 1c and
1d. More particularly, the lack of visible contextual boundaries between
individual icons or groups of icons within the whole array gives the user
no clues as to where to look for specific icons or groups of icons as
seen in FIG. 1b. This often critical factor we will refer to as the
`findability` problem. A specific example illustrates the point: A user
issues a query or search on a system containing a catalogue of classical
music items. The search is for Chamber Music string Quartet recordings.
Typically the results might be presented to the user as several pages of
icons, one page at a time, representing such works by all composers in
the catalogue (FIG. 1b indicates the problem). The first issue for the
user is how has the system sorted them? Is it alphabetically by composer
or is it by title or by some other criteria? Even where the system does
use an explicit sorting criteria, the boundaries between the sort
criteria elements are almost always not visible or they may be on pages
not visible to the user, as can be seen in FIG. 1b. How would the user
locate the Chamber Music string quartets of Mozart, or Beethoven? And
where are those pages within the whole set of results pages presented to
the user. To sum up: The user is unlikely to get any idea of how many
icons belong to which composer, how are the results (icons) organised and
where are the boundaries between each subset or sub group (in this
example `composers`) or on which page they are located. In the case of
many consecutive pages of icons in a 2d array, users have little or no
idea where to look for relevant results--The user can normally only see
one page or screen of icons at any time and it may not be obvious on what
basis non adjacent and even adjacent icons have been contextually
arranged. They may have to look through all pages to find icons relevant
to their task or goal. More generally, icons that are hierarchically
organised may be sorted and arranged numerically or alphabetically by
title, author, shoe size, colour etc or some other criteria appropriate
to the application. However, since only a small subset is visible to the
user at any one time it will not be obvious what the relationships are or
where the hierarchical boundaries or breaks occur in the other unseen
pages of the presentation. Consequently, locating or finding pages with
relevant results can be just a matter of chance because the boundaries
between different contextual subsets or nodes within the whole group are
unmarked and hidden amongst the unseen screen `pages` or stacked icons in
an often irregular and unpredictable manner.

[0009] Other 3D devices within the prior art and of even greater
sophistication include a parent and child carousel arrangement where each
icon in a carousel represents a node in a complex data structure.
Selecting an icon (or tree node) in a `Parent` carousel initiates the
creation of a child carousel. The child carousel can then produce even
more offspring. This kind of device is typified by U.S. patent
application Ser. No. 12/109,530. Whilst having the ability to display a
multi level data tree, this device cannot reveal at a glance the
contextual boundaries and relationships amongst the icons displayed in
any particular carousel for the reasons discussed earlier. (See FIG. 1g)

[0010] To sum up, all such multi-icon systems suffer from a single major
failing of not indicating to the user at a glance the relationships
between adjacent and non adjacent icons and groups of icons within the
total of those presented on screen or the likely location of icons that
will be of interest to the user. The user may have to visit all icons
presented to find a single icon of relevance.

[0011] Examples of prior art:

[0012] A `Coverflow` clone can be seen at
http://www.weberdesignlabs.com/blog_files/itunes/iTunesAlbumArt.html
(Coverflow is a trademark of Apple Inc.)

[0029] FIG. 1b illustrates a known sequence of several pages or screens of
icons and text labels in which only the middle page is currently visible
to the user. A number of contextual boundaries are present in the
sequence or hierarchy but all are invisible to the user from his current
page;

[0030] FIG. 1c illustrates a known `carousel` of icons in which the visual
content of almost all icons such as 108 is partly or completely obscured
to the user;

[0031] FIG. 1d illustrates a known `Pack of Cards` or `Coverflow` style
array of icons indicating possible motion of icons. Almost all icons are
partly or completely obscured 108 with no indication of contextual
boundaries or the beginning and end of the sequence or hierarchy;

[0032] FIG. 1e illustrates a known icon `wall` showing one possible mode
of motion and no visibility of contextual boundaries or the contents of
smaller icons;

[0044] FIG. 2i illustrates an icon of different shape with a non-visible
link;

[0045]FIG. 3a illustrates `one to many` tag-icon link or association--A
users cursor 401 is seen `mousing over` tag 305 causing it and the
associated three icons 303, 302, 304 to be highlighted. The two icons
303, 302 are also linked to another separate tag 308;

[0046]FIG. 3b illustrates the same relationships & linking as in FIG. 3a
but as might be seen in a `tagged icon carousel` embodiment of the
invention. It is clear that the content of the icons are partially
obscured but the tags and highlighting continue to reveal the associated
icons;

[0047]FIG. 3c illustrates a link between a tag and associated icons
including a multi-icon;

[0048]FIG. 4 illustrates the preferred embodiment with an instance of a
single highlighted tag 608, being linked to more than one icon 605, 612,
613. The highlighting instance as in this case may be initiated by a
users cursor 607 `mousing` over the tag or icons. Some tags are missing
(I', `U` and `V`) because the data element set represented by the
visualised icons contains no elements associated with those alphabetic
characters. The rotation of the Tagged icon Carousel is illustrated by
arrows 603. Icon 615 is the `frontmost` icon or the icon visually
`closest` to the user. A dynamic annotated slider control is shown at 414
with slider 413, and dynamic characters or symbols 412 mirroring the tag
character sequence in the tagged icon carousel display;

[0049]FIG. 5a illustrates a looped `deck of cards` embodiment of the
invention showing associated icons and tags with `frontmost tag 515 and
icon 516. The tags such as 501 (Tag `A` in FIG. 5 being the first in the
looped sequence) clearly reveal the location of associated icons in the
sequence in the visualisation;

[0050]FIG. 5b illustrates the looped `deck of cards` with no tags of FIG.
1D. This is shown alongside FIG. 5a for comparison;

[0052] FIG. 7 illustrates two further embodiments of the invention using
concentric or co-axial Tagged icon Carousels. FIG. 7a illustrates a pair
of tagged icons carousels which are co-axial. FIG. 7b illustrates a pair
of concentric and co-axial tagged icon carousels. (More than two tagged
icons carousels are permitted within the spirit and intent of the
application);

[0054] FIG. 9a illustrates a non-Tagged icon carousel seen edge on in
which only the front icons are seen;

[0055] FIG. 9b illustrates a Tagged icon carousel seen edge on in which
the unseen icons can clearly be located and interacted with using either
the tags or the annotated scroller bar;

[0056]FIG. 10 illustrates a further embodiment featuring a linear grid or
array of icons with associated tags;

[0057] FIG. 11 is a possible flow diagram of a user search using the
preferred embodiment, the tagged icon carousel, in a video on demand
website search interface and described below;

[0058] FIG. 12 is a data node tree for the data elements encountered in
the users search in the example of a video on demand website search
interface described in the preferred embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Overview

[0059] The following represents a simplified summary of some embodiments
of the invention rather than a detailed overview in order to provide a
basic understanding of its functional elements. A more detailed
description is presented for a preferred embodiment below.

[0060] Some embodiments have a number of `components` or subsystems

1. The dynamic `Tagged icon system` which consists of three main
subcomponents

[0061] a. The icons

[0062] b. The tags

[0063] c. The
optional dynamically annotated slider/scroll bar 2. The optional
Multiple, text based list component 3. The reduced or `contracted Tagged
icon system which is an alternative visualisation of the Tagged icon
system. 4. The Algorithm which drives the Tagged icon system and which
contextually analyses the users purpose/enquiry and decides what tags to
display in the Tagged icon system and how to display them

[0064] The human visual system is much more efficient at recognising
concealed or partially concealed visual representations when the manner
in which such representations are positioned on a screen is predictably
ordered according to a simple rule or hierarchy. Such rules could include
but may not be limited to alphabetic or numeric ordering by a
contextually relevant property of the visual representations on a user
screen. Some embodiments of the invention use this facility to provide a
quick, intuitive, and engaging digital or computer based means of
dynamically revealing to a user at a glance, the contextual and
hierarchical boundaries and relationships between a plurality of icons
each representing data elements necessarily presented on a users screen
in a static or dynamic, structured and predetermined way and with which a
user can interact to perform search, navigation, control and other
functions in an intuitive, engaging way. The icons forming part of some
embodiments of the invention can be used to represent almost any kind of
data element or object, file, navigation element or system control
function. Icons to be represented on the users screen may be sorted and
arranged in a user selected and/or system predetermined order depending
on the application.

[0065] The on screen visual representations of such data elements (other
than tags) will be referred to in this document as icons. It is intended
that all references to icons and the data elements which they represent
will, in some embodiments of the invention, include but not be limited to
still or moving images, (or still images, text or symbols representing
such moving images), thumbnail images, navigation, control or other
active functional icons, text objects or placeholders for those objects
forming a static or dynamic assemblage on a users display screen. The
icons represented on a users screen at any particular time and in this
way, in general represent a particular state, search result, tree node,
navigation or control state of the host system.

[0066] Some embodiments of the invention consist of two principle
subsystems. The first is an integrated assembly or visualisation
displayed on a users screen comprising a plurality of such icons which
are shown on a user's screen associated with annotated tags, to be
described below and which are organised on screen in such way that the
tags can indicate to a user the contextual, hierarchical and sequential
relationships between individual or grouped icons in the assembly. This
subsystem of some embodiments of the invention will be referred to as a
tagged icon device or assembly. The second subsystem forming a principle
part of some embodiments of the invention is a multiple interactive
dynamic integrated text based list or word assembly system which displays
and mirrors current and previous tagged icon assembly states and contents
as text based lists or word assemblies. Such text based lists and word
assemblies may in some embodiments of the invention be in a hierarchical
or contextually ordered state derived from filtering or sorting
operations. Individually, such lists are often referred to by
practitioners of the art as `Jukeboxes`.

[0067] To convey contextual and hierarchical structure visually and almost
instantly at the users current system state, some embodiments of the
invention visually associate or link a symbol or character based `Tag`,
forming part of a simple series of hierarchically or sequentially
organised Tags on the users screen, with each contextually distinct and
hierarchically sequentially ordered icon or icon group displayed to the
user.

[0068] Tags are generated and ordered on the users screen according to
application and/or embodiment specific rules or algorithms that
contextually analyse the user's current query or purpose and the system
state. Such rules or algorithms will usually be predetermined by the
system designers based on a careful analysis of user and system
requirements, states, interactions and desired outcomes within the actual
application.

[0069] Tags so generated together with their linked icons form a powerful
series of ordered visual cues contextually appropriate to the user's
purpose. Tags may use text, symbols or other visually distinct properties
to indicate one or more contextual or hierarchical properties and
relationships inherent in the icons presented in the display and relevant
to the user's purpose.

[0070] Tags are a powerful way of enabling the user to locate specific
icons or groups of icons in a more highly targeted, efficient and
fulfilling way than hitherto possible. This is particularly true when
there are large numbers of icons on the users screen.

[0071] The Tags forming part of some embodiments of the invention are not
to be considered as mere labels, descriptions or `titles` for icons they
are linked to; their purpose and functionality is much more complex and
deep than that. They are a dynamic structure that possesses very simple
and yet powerful visual cues enabling users to make rapid context based
visual inferences about the hierarchical ordering, location and
attributes of adjacent or non-adjacent individual and/or grouped icons in
the display. Individual tags in a series visually and dynamically locate
specific icons or groups of icons with specific attributes or properties
revealed by the contents of the Tag and by relying on the human eye's
ability to rapidly recognise patterns in simple visual structures, a
series of tags reveals firstly, how their associated icons are sorted or
arranged within the whole assembly of icons. In a simple embodiment this
could be alphabetic, numeric, by title or size or any other application
specific attribute. The tags forming part of some embodiments of the
invention also interactively and dynamically reveal icon group boundaries
and hence indicate the number of icons in any particular contextual
group. Such tags can also reveal where icons or groups may be missing or
absent from an assemblage of icons. They can also reveal contextual
boundaries between groups of icons.

[0072] Such tags to be displayed will always be visible and legible
despite the fact that icons to which they are linked or associated may be
partially or fully obscured. Such tags dynamically follow the motion of
icons to which they are linked in the assemblage and thus continually
reveal contextual and sequential structure for all icon orientations and
motions permitted by an embodiment of the invention

[0073] The presentation to a user of icons and their associated tags,
according to some embodiments of the invention, has many possible dynamic
or static embodiments under system and/or user control.

[0074] User interaction with a working embodiment of the device can be by
any suitable means including but not limited to a pointing and clicking
device such as a mouse, suitably equipped hand held remote device,
suitable interaction with a touch screen, haptic, gesture or voice based
control or any other device or system existing or yet to be devised. All
such devices will be referred to as `user interaction devices`. User
recognition of icons, groups of icons, associated tags and their state
can be reinforced by a visual change of state or highlighting of the
associated icons and tags as the users interacts with them. For example,
a change of state such as highlighting may be employed to enable a user
to recognise those icons that are contextually associated with specific
tags in order to then initiate other selection, searching, navigation or
system control actions.

[0075] The objects referred to as `tags` each comprise one or more
characters, symbols or other contextually distinguishing and
hierarchically ordering means, known or yet to be devised. Such means
include but are not limited to, alphabetic or numeric characters of any
known or yet to be known or devised language. Tags may also use colour,
font, shape, size, texture, or other features to provide an engaging and
intuitive means to visually indicate the contextual boundaries or
hierarchical ordering of one or more properties, values or relationships
by which the icons are sorted or organised in the display.

[0076] The association between a Tag and its linked icons can be indicated
to a user by highlighting or other obvious visual change of state
triggered by a suitable user interaction such as moving the users cursor
over a tag (A behaviour known as `Mousing over`). In the preferred
embodiment to be described below, all icons associated with the moused
over Tag show a highlight or change of state. Each tag 305 (FIG. 3a) may
be visually associated with and linked to one or more adjacent icons 302,
303, 304 in the display in a `one to many` relationship and will in this
way reveal categories, nodes, subsets or other contextual groupings
within the icons and the boundaries between them. Each icon 303 (FIG. 3a)
may also be associated with more than one tag 305, 308 in a `many to one`
relationship (many tags to one icon)--for example an icon may represent a
collection or compilation of music tracks by more than one composer.

[0077] A principle and key feature of some embodiments of the invention
are their ability to enable users to see at a glance how tags and their
associated icons are organised and in this way explicitly and visually
present a map of the contextual boundaries between individual icons and
groups of icons presented regardless of how many icons are shown on
screen. In this way users will be able to visually locate and select
almost at a glance, relevant areas where icons of interest will be
located. The user can then choose to bring the selected icon or icons
into a more prominent or visually `closer` position from where individual
icons can be browsed and an icon of interest selected. This ability to
reveal the contextual arrangement and boundaries within the whole
display, even though there may be a large percentage of icons with visual
content partially or fully obscured by overlying icons, is one of the
most significant and unique features of some embodiments of the
invention.

[0078] Icons and tags may be sorted and displayed by any predetermined or
user selected criteria appropriate to a practical application of some
embodiments of the invention (such as composer, popularity, size, time of
day). The actual choice of sort criteria may be predetermined by the
logic built into the system by the designer or the user may choose from a
number of offered sort parameters offered by the system and based on the
users pre-existing enquiry or purpose and the current state of the
system.

[0079] Individual Tags may be associated with or linked to more than one
adjacent icon and in this respect are serving as a common reference for
all icons associated with that particular tag and the property, category,
node or parameter it represents. The actual choice of Tag symbols, fonts,
characters, colours, sizes etc used in any particular embodiment are not
necessarily considered part of the embodiment but will be dictated by the
actual application and the artistic and cultural values to be embodied by
the design team implementing an application of an embodiment of the
invention.

[0080] Individual tags and the icons they are associated with may be
highlighted and revealed by `mousing` over them in turn. Furthermore, a
user may activate, select or trigger an action on a single icon with a
mouse or other user interactive device to progress to another level in
the current data or navigation tree or initiate other behaviours
including motion of the entire assembly of icons and tags in order to
move selected icons to a predetermined position where the user may see
their contents in more detail. In this way the user is not required to
look through page after page of icons or examine almost all icons
presented in order to locate a single icon of interest as would happen
with other existing methods. Substantial time is saved and frustration
avoided.

[0081] A further optional feature of some embodiments of the invention
simultaneously enables a user to review and interact with the current and
all prior levels in the users present task by means of multiple
interactive dynamic text based lists or word assemblies which display and
mirror not only the current icons and tag contents but also permit the
user to access and interact with all previous levels or nodes encountered
in the users current activity. Such lists and/or word assemblies
represent either the current or previous nodes or states of the users
workflow using the Tagged icon device. A user can return to any such
previous Tagged icon assembly state or node and select an alternative
item in that node: The Tagged icon assembly will then display the
contents of that node and form the beginning of a new search or activity.
The use of multiple text based lists and/or word assemblies can be
regarded as an interactive text based data tree or `Path` representation
of the user's entire current activity complementing and extending, not
merely duplicating the Tagged icon assembly's contents. The integration
of the Tagged icon assembly with the multiple dynamic text lists and/or
word assemblies is a uniquely powerful method of accessing and selecting
individual icons from the contents of a single node or layer whilst
maintaining full interactive control over previous levels or nodes
encountered.

[0082] The multiple text based lists and/or word assemblies are optional
and for some embodiments may not be required or may be toggled on or off
by system or user interaction.

[0083] The tagged icon system(s) and the text based multiple lists and/or
word assemblies (called a Jukebox) are to be seen as subsystems of some
embodiments of the invention. Each complementing and mirroring the other
and the whole assembly providing functionality not possible with either
subsystem individually.

[0084] A further level of sophistication having uses including EPG's
(Electronic Programming guides--for TV, radio and internet) and complex
process monitoring and control is the optional display of `child` Tagged
icon systems which `bud off` from the original parent Tagged icon system
under user or system control. Such an enhancement may be used for
example, as a display method for monitoring particular areas of complex
processes in which icons in the Tagged Icon System actively represent a
set of complex sub-system parameters. Each icon and it's associated tags
when highlighted could alert a user to certain conditions being achieved
in any particular sub-system. Further information about that sub-system
state would be revealed by a `child` Tagged Icon System `budding off` to
display as icons, vital parameters associated with that sub-system's new
state whilst still maintaining full visibility of all other subsystem
states in the parent (This `Parent` & `Child` arrangement can be seen in
FIG. 6)

[0085] Some other possible embodiments of the invention include but are
not limited to tagged icon carousels, looped or non looped tagged 2D and
3D linear image arrays of icons such as a Tagged `Deck of Cards` variety
and many more dynamic or static icon presentations some of which can be
seen in FIG. 5, FIG. 1d and FIG. 6. The embodiment in FIG. 6 is a multi
level, `Parent and Child` tagged icon carousel in which user selection of
a single icon at one level of the tagged icon carousel invokes a
secondary `Child` tagged icon carousel which produces another level of
related data elements or navigation possibilities to the user. Further
levels of `Child` Tagged icon carousels can be generated.

[0086] Icons and/or tags displayed may incorporate motion in their
behaviour under user or system control. Such motion may include but not
be limited to elliptical, or linear, looped or non-looped or any
combination of such motions which enable icons and tags to be placed on
screen in the most appropriate manner for the application.

[0087] Examples to illustrate the use of some embodiments of the
invention: FIG. 2a shows a single Tag 201 with character `P` 202
associated with icon 203. This might indicate for example that icon 203
represents a data element whose name begins with `P` (The composer
Pagganini for instance)-FIG. 2e shows an icon with Tag indicating
attribute `T` and also the colour red. This might indicate a process
state `T` and a particular level of `alert` status indicated by the
colour red for instance. The users attention having been alerted by the
`Red` Tag and seeing state `T` may go on to select the icon for closer
inspection--The icon may then reveal other important system state
parameters associated with system state `T` and alert status `Red` or the
icon could be a video player window showing video images of a process
that is a cause for concern. Alternatively, Character `T` may be a video
security camera location with the Tag colour Red indicating an alert for
that location. The user can then select that camera's icon for closer
inspection. FIG. 4 shows the preferred embodiment which could be suitable
for this type of application. Another example of the use of some
embodiments of the invention has for example, a set of icons
(representing data elements) resulting from a user operation such as a
filtering or sorting operation on a set of data elements or a system or
user initiated change of state, which is to be displayed to a user. In
conventional display systems, with no clue as to the location of
contextual or hierarchical boundaries, it is extremely difficult for the
user to know where to look to find relevant icons. For example, the user
might wish to find icons related to a particular name or title--without a
visual indication of the ordering and contextual boundaries within the
whole icon assembly, the users search can be little more than random.
Some embodiments of the invention, by using dynamic tags indicating
contextual and hierarchical boundaries enable the user to locate at a
glance, the icons of relevance to his or her search or task. Indeed the
icons to be displayed may possess more than one attribute (properties,
relationships and/or information) whose display to the user in a visually
differentiated and ordered manner enable the user to focus on and make
rapid choices based on the visual cues supplied by the tags displayed.
For example, in the display of an online musical DVD catalogue, a search
for Mozart's works could be displayed as icons ordered by opus number
displayed numerically on the tags with `popularity` as a second property
displayed by the colour of the tags. Thus, immediately, a user who wanted
to view a specific work or opus number could locate the group of icons
representing all versions of that specific opus number. Whereas, a user
who was more interested in selecting works by popularity could be guided
by Tag colour to find the most popular works equally quickly. Having
selected a particular work and its available versions by clicking on its
tag, further `Tags` could indicate popularity of those multiple versions.
A third property `Ensemble` (the musical instrumentation in the
performance) may be revealed to the user by the inclusion of other
symbols or properties in the tags.

[0088] Possible uses for some embodiments of the invention:

[0089] On
screen User search interface

[0090] EPG (electronic program
guides--TV/Radio schedules)

[0091] Industrial & medical process
monitoring and control

[0092] Computer games

[0093] Media players such as
pub jukeboxes

[0094] Displaying personal or business contacts

[0095]
Result of an internet search. (Google, Ask, etc)

[0096] display of retail
items at a sales terminal

[0097] display of users computer when internet
shopping

[0098] Online auction results

[0099] Navigation device for any
digital data display such as a computer, workstation, terminal.

[0100] The embodiments of the invention described may be displayed on a
computer screen, a mobile phone, a personal multimedia device.

DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

[0101] A preferred embodiment of the invention will be described with
reference to the attached drawings.

[0102] Those skilled in the art will appreciate that some embodiments of
the invention including the particular embodiment about to be described
are not computer code specific and should be capable of implementation by
anyone competent in the software arts in any reasonably comprehensive
graphically oriented language or combination of coding systems such as
HTML, Java, Flash C++ etc running on any suitable host digital
electronic, microprocessor or computer based hardware or any general
purpose or application specific computer or digital electronic system
equipped with or able to interact with or connect to a display device
that actively or dynamically presents digital data visually to a user and
with which the user may interact. These include digital electronic
systems such as but not limited to Internet enabled television display
systems, Set top box systems, electronic program guides, multimedia
presentation systems such as Juke boxes and hand held electronic devices
including mobile phones and personal video players. In addition some
embodiments of the invention may operate over a wired or wireless network
or link such as the internet where it can form part of an advanced
website. Some embodiments of the invention and in particular this
embodiment are capable of being displayed on any visual display unit with
sufficient resolution or pixel density. In more advanced implementations
of the embodiment a 3D `stereoscopic` or holographic display may be used
to enhance the users appreciation of the depth or `Z` axis of the
displayed information.

[0103] User interaction with a working embodiment of the invention can be
by any suitable means known now or in the future including but not
limited to any wired or wireless pointing devices such as a computer
mouse, keyboards, hand held remote device, touch screen, haptic or
gesture based device or any other device existing or yet to be devised
that permits a user to control or change the state of the system. All
such devices unless specifically mentioned will be referred to as `user
interaction devices`.

[0104] In this preferred embodiment of the invention a user is presented
with a `virtual` 3D visualisation of many on screen representations of
data elements for searching, sorting, browsing or navigating. The
embodiment consists of a primary subsystem comprising a plurality of
screen objects hierarchically or sequentially organised into two
associated groups known in this document as icons and tags which form an
integrated 3d, dynamic, rotatable carousel arrangement which for the sake
of brevity will be called a `Tagged icon Carousel`. The Tagged icon
Carousel and its two most recognisable components are schematically
represented in FIG. 4: Icons such as 602, 612, 615 (an icon is a
graphical representation of a Data Element) and the associated Tags such
as 614 are seen forming the rotatable 3d circular carousel arrangement
601.

[0105] Each icon 602 is a graphical representation of a data element or
digital object stored within the system memory and presented on the users
screen in a predetermined ordered way and with which the user may
interact to perform various operations or actions. Practitioners of the
user interface arts will recognise that said icons in this preferred
embodiment or another embodiment of the invention, can be used to
represent almost any kind of data element, navigation element or system
control function. The elements represented by the icons are limited only
by the actual requirements of the application and the imagination and
skill of the system designers. Such uses include but are not limited to
individual or grouped combinations of:

[0106] Directories, files,
folders

[0107] Nodes

[0108] Properties

[0109] Categories

[0110] Chapters
and indexing in books and other documents

[0111] URL's or links
particularly for web sites

[0112] Moving or still images, photographs or
audio items (or text or symbols representing such items)

[0126] Each tag and icon in this or another embodiment of the invention
may have a border or frame of shape, size and other visual properties
suitable and specific to any particular application. Some possible
examples for tags and icons are shown in FIGS. 2a-2i. Those shown should
not be considered as an exhaustive list. Each tag used in any particular
application will contain characters or symbols appropriate to the
specific application as interpreted by the designers aims and will
generally have a visible link to those associated icons it references.
Colour, font, shape, size, texture, pattern, plurality and position or
any other visual property of the tags may also be used to provide an
engaging and intuitive means to indicate contextual relationships or
aspects of relationships inherent but not necessarily otherwise apparent
between adjacent or non adjacent individual or grouped icons. Culture and
language of the intended users may also influence character choice,
visual characteristics and contextual ordering in the displayed
properties of the embodiment.

[0127] Each icon in this embodiment has a border, frame or window which
can indicate to a user by any visual, or additional audible or other
sensory means including change of colour, shape or other property
including highlighting that it is active, selected or has become
selectable or in some other way has changed state or may change state or
initiate some other system action particularly in response to a user
interaction. For example, this might be to indicate that an icon has been
`moused` over. This temporary change of state may be indicated to the
user by the icon border changing colour or the icon itself changing
visually in some other way. In FIG. 4 a users cursor is `mousing over`
tag 608 and in response icons 613, 612, 605 have changed visual state as
indicated by the darker frame to the icons indicating their association
with tag 608.

[0128] The entire group of displayed icons represent a set of
hierarchically related and ordered data elements which are necessarily to
be displayed on the users screen. Data elements will be arranged
sequentially or hierarchically according to a predetermined or user
selected property common to all data elements in the set to be displayed.
For example, this might be a numeric property such as `shoe size` if the
display is related to a retail catalogue of shoes or an alphabetic
property such as the first alphabetic letter of the name of each data
element if the user is to choose icons by name.

[0129] In some embodiments of the invention including this preferred
embodiment, a key inventive step has been made whereby annotated `Tags`
form a dynamic visual indexing system whose purpose is to indicate to the
user the positions within the display and contextual relationships
between adjacent or non adjacent individual icons such as 602 in FIG. 4
(associated with a tag featuring alphabetic character `Q` in that
diagram) or an icon group 605, 612, 613 (all associated with tag
featuring character `F`). Each contextually distinct and sequentially or
hierarchically ordered icon or icon group in the `Tagged icon Carousel`
display is visually associated or linked with a dynamically ordered or
sequenced identifier, flag or label referred to in this document as a
`tag` 608.

[0130] The Tags described in this application and forming part of the
preferred embodiment are not to be considered as mere labels, description
or `titles` for icons they are linked to: Their purpose is much more
complex and deep than that: At their core they form a dynamic, rapid
visual indexing system possessing very simple and powerful visual cues
enabling users to make rapid context based visual inferences about the
hierarchical or sequential ordering, location and attributes of adjacent
or non-adjacent individual and/or grouped icons in the display. It should
be noted that in prior art referred to elsewhere in this document, with
more than just a handful of icons it would be extremely difficult or even
impossible for the user to read or visually recognise names, ordering and
contextual boundaries inherent in the display if titles or descriptions
of icons were displayed. There would simply be too many and they would
almost always be overlaying one another. In some other examples of prior
art, names or descriptions may be displayed one at a time which means
that for any more than a few icons it takes a very long time to read each
one and memorise it and its position.

[0131] The Tags described in the application comprise one or more
characters, symbols or other distinguishing and ordering means, including
but not limited to, alphabetic or numeric characters of any known or yet
to be devised language, symbols, patterns or whatever graphical
hierarchical system is appropriate for the geographical language used and
the application which the preferred embodiment is being used for. Tags
may also use colours, size, visual textures or any visual device the
system designer deems appropriate to indicate and differentiate
contextual boundaries or hierarchical or sequential grouping amongst the
icons on the screen. Combinations of any of these visual means can be
used to indicate more than one contextual hierarchy or structure within
the icons displayed on a screen. FIGS. 2a-2i show just some of the
possible arrangements of Tags and icons together with their labelling
which may feature in this preferred or another embodiment. It is a
preferred feature of the Tags that they are arranged as a visually
recognisable series or hierarchical ordered array and which by their
visual association or linking with the icons in the display permit the
user to see the structure and hierarchical ordering of the icons in the
display together with the contextual boundaries between different groups
of icons in that display.

[0132] Each tag 305 (FIG. 3a) may be visually associated with and linked
to one or more adjacent icons, for example 302, 303, 304 in the display,
in a `one to many` relationship and will in this way reveal categories,
nodes, subsets or other contextual groupings within the icons and the
boundaries between them. Each icon 303 (FIG. 3a) may also be associated
with more than one tag 305, 308 in a `many to one` relationship (many
tags to one icon)--for example an icon may represent a collection or
compilation of music tracks by more than one composer whose names would
be represented by said tags.

[0133] A further key feature of some embodiments of the invention is an
optional annotated scroll bar in which the same ordered symbols,
characters or other visual devices 412 (FIG. 8) that appear in the tags
displayed in the Tagged icon Carousel are shown presented in a linear
display 411 (FIG. 8) together with a slider or scroller control 413 (FIG.
8). The optional scroll bar may also be used to display some other
property associated with the displayed icons. For example the annotated
scroller may display channel numbers for a television service whilst the
Tags in the tagged carousel may display programme times. The annotation
on the scroll bar is optional in the sense that it may be left out of any
particular embodiment of the invention without significantly impairing
the functionality of the device. However, for some users it may be a more
intuitive means of selecting tags and icons that give the user an
important optional way to examine or browse icons in the Tagged icon
Carousel very precisely. In operation, a user would interact with the
scroller controller 413 using a mouse or other user interactive device or
method to `Drag` or move the scroller control button so that it was
immediately adjacent to whichever character or symbol was appropriate to
their search or navigation task. Such interaction with the scroller
control causes the tagged icon carousel to rotate to a position where the
icons associated with that character are relocated at the front of the
tagged icon carousel. This can be seen in FIG. 8 where the scroller
control has been `dragged` adjacent to the letter `K`. This has caused
the tagged icon carousel to rotate bringing the icons associated with the
letter `K` to the front position. When implementing the preferred
embodiment for any particular application this control may be left to the
user to be toggled on or off using a control not shown in the diagram for
simplicity. Alternatively the system designers may choose to remove the
annotation if the number of characters to be presented is too large for
the space given in that particular application of the embodiment. It is
possible for this control to be positioned in other orientations and
locations such as vertically on the screen without compromising its
functionality. Positioning the slider against a symbol or character in
the scroll bar is functionally the same as selecting the tag of the same
character.

[0134] In this preferred embodiment, the Tagged icon Carousel device
consisting of icons, such as 615 (FIG. 8), tags such as 614, and any
additional controls such as the slider system 414, are drawn on the users
screen by the graphic display subsystem of the host equipment as a
representation of objects moving in a virtual 3D space with icon and tag
dimensions and motion scaled to represent their apparent depth in the `Z`
axis perpendicular to the screen surface. (The screen can be considered
to be a 2D X-Y space) This helps to create the illusion for the user that
the objects comprising the Tagged icon Carousel are `floating` in a 3D
space. In a more advanced implementation of the embodiment the visual
display may use `Stereoscopic` or holographic means to give the user a
much more realistic visual perception of `depth` in the `Z` axis.

[0135] The Tagged icon Carousel may dynamically rotate around an axis
under system or user control in order to permit a user to examine
individual icons or icon groups. Normally but not necessarily such
rotation would bring an icon or icon group of user interest to a
predetermined frontal position for further inspection or functional use.
In FIG. 4, icon 615 and tag 614 are located at the frontal position where
they are at the largest scale size on the users screen enabling closer
and more detailed user examination

[0136] Tags will rotate or move within the display visualisation so that
they continue to maintain the visual association or linkage to the icons
or icon groups they were associated with or linked to. Tag position,
scale and font size are set by the system designer to provide good
legibility in any position on the users screen. Tag size and motion may
be scaled to more closely represent normal perspective and `Z` axis depth
effects.

[0137] The association between a Tag and its associated or linked icons
can be indicated to a user by highlighting or other obvious visual change
of state of the Tags and icons involved which clearly identifies such
associated tags and icons from the others around it. Such visual change
of state may be triggered by a suitable user interaction such as moving
the user's cursor over a tag or icon (A behaviour known as `Mousing
over`). In the preferred embodiment all icons associated with a moused
over Tag show the highlight or change of state. Such highlighting enables
a user to recognise the group of icons that are contextually associated
with the moused over tag and then initiate further selection, searching,
navigation or system control actions. Equally, a moused over icon may
highlight its associated tag or tags in the same way.

[0138] When a user has located an icon or group of icons of interest, he
or she may initiate a further interaction by using a mouse or other user
interaction device to select or click the tag or icon. Icons & tags in
the embodiment are dynamic in the sense that they can rotate around a
virtual axis on the screen in response to user input and the state of the
system and are active in the sense that selecting or interacting with an
icon or tag may initiate some sort of predetermined action or system
change of state. Curved arrows 603 (FIG. 4) represent possible rotational
directions of motion of icons and tags in the preferred embodiment. In
some other embodiments or applications the motion of tags and icons may
be different. For example in the preferred embodiment one of the possible
methods amongst many by which such user interaction would initiate a
rotation of the tagged icon carousel is as follows: In FIG. 4 a user's
cursor is seen `mousing` over a tag 608. If that tag or an associated
icon is then selected (clicked) with the user's interaction device, the
Tagged icon carousel would rotate bringing the selected icon or icons to
the front position 615 where it can be inspected in more detail by the
user. At this point further options may be presented to the user
depending on the embodiment's current state and the application it is
being used for.

[0139] In addition to rotating the carousel by selecting icons or tags,
rotation may also be initiated by moving the scroll button 413 to the
left or right using a click and drag mouse action or any other desired
user interaction method (described elsewhere in this document). Any other
combination of key input or user interaction device input can be arranged
to initiate such movements or state changes in the present embodiment.
The user is thus able to precisely control and rotate the `Tagged icon
Carousel` in order to bring any particular individual or group of icons
to the front of the display--In this case tag `P` and its associated
icons are at the front position and so is the slider 411. In this way,
the positioning of the slider on the scroll bar can be seen to be
equivalent to rotating the Tagged icon Carousel using the tags or icons.
Other user input devices including the controls of the Jukebox lists and
word assemblies to be described later in this document can also have
equivalent functionality.

[0140] It is intended that the system software controlling the `drawing`
of screen display elements will arrange for as many tags as possible to
be visible to the user at all times. As indicated in FIG. 4, the rules
locating tags on the screen will ensure that the elevation and clearance
from one tag to another allows no significant overlap.

[0141] Ideally, the `apparent` angular elevation of the user's viewpoint
which may be preset by the embodiment's designers, is set so that the top
edge of the foreground icon does not obscure the bottom edge of the
rearmost background icon and also makes allowance for the gap between
foreground and rear icons to be large enough to accommodate the tags for
the foreground icons as in FIG. 4. In some applications of the preferred
embodiment the apparent angular elevation may be reduced or minimised in
order to reduce the onscreen height required for the display. With prior
art carousels and similar devices when seen with a small angular
elevation for the users viewpoint as shown in FIG. 9a i.e. close to `edge
on` to the carousel, it is impossible to see or locate icons that are
hidden by the icons at the `Front` of the device--In FIG. 9b showing a
user's `Edge on` view of the preferred embodiment it, can be seen that
the `Tags` or the scroll bar in the preferred embodiment, being a key
part of some embodiments of the invention, continue to enable a user to
locate, access and interact with the obscured or hidden `rear` icons.
When the embodiment is in this `edge on` orientation for a user it will
be referred to in this document as the `Contracted` Tagged icon Carousel.

[0142] In this preferred embodiment the choice of characters or symbols
and other indicators that comprise a series of tags will be pre-defined
by the system designers based on the exact nature of the application that
the preferred embodiment is being used for. In use the annotations for
the tags, scroll bar and Jukebox lists will be selected and preloaded at
run time by the system logic with reference to the context of the users
query or task in the application that the embodiment is being used for.
Often a simple alphabetic or numeric tag sequence will be all that is
required to guide the user.

[0143] A further key component of some embodiments of the invention is the
addition to the tagged icon carousel visualisation, when required by the
user or the system, of a subsystem comprising a plurality of ordered
dynamic text based lists or word assemblies. Each list or word assembly
represents the contents of the Tagged icon Carousel at a different state
of the system or user's search or other activity. Such static or dynamic
text based lists have become known to those engaged & familiar in the art
as `juke boxes`. However, such text based lists or word assemblies when
dynamically linked and integrated with the Tagged icon Carousel in the
manner set out herewith, the functionality and accessibility of visual
representations of data elements is vastly improved over any previously
known embodiment of such prior art device.

[0144] The primary function of the `jukebox` lists in some embodiments of
the invention is to present a sequentially ordered text or character
based array which represents, complements &/or mirrors the Tagged icon
Carousel's current and previous user or system generated states thus
permitting the user to visualise and revisit any part of the current or
previous states or nodes in the current node tree, search path or
navigation path. FIG. 8 shows such a series of concatenated lists. List
616 is an example. Each adjacent list being a separate previous or
current stage or node in the user's navigation or search task with the
right most list being the current node representing the current contents
of the tagged icon carousel. In FIG. 8 the central list headed
`Orchestral sorted by Composer` is the current list (the two dashed lists
to the right indicate possible future lists). To the left of the current
list is the previous state and further to the left are the Tagged icon
carousel states prior to that. Hence the Jukebox can display all possible
divergence nodes from that entire user search or navigation path because
each list displays all the possible data elements presented in each
previous level of search or navigation. Thus each icon in the Tagged icon
Carousel or tagged icon device is mirrored by a corresponding text `item`
in the `current` list in the jukebox. In FIG. 8 a user's cursor is seen
`Mousing over` the text item `Beethoven` in the list. The other names
associated with the letter `B` are also highlighted in the list. The
tagged icon carousel above to which this Jukebox is integrated shows
icons 605, 612, 613 one of which must be an icon representing the data
element `Beethoven`. The associated tag `B` is also highlighted. In this
way the Jukebox represents a complete node tree for the user's current
usage of the device. A user may therefore go back to any previous stage
of his or her navigation or search activity or task and initiate a search
from a different node within the search tree. This facility may be
optionally further extended by allowing the system to record such jukebox
states and searches for future recall and use.

[0145] In order to demonstrate the preferred embodiment's utility, we will
describe a particular application of the preferred embodiment using the
Tagged icon Carousel with its integrated and associated `Jukebox` lists.
A flow diagram for this process is shown in FIG. 11. Together, the two
subsystems, the Tagged icon Carousel with its integrated and associated
`Jukebox` lists, function as a highly intuitive and engaging integrated
user search interface on a music based `video on demand` (VOD) website,
enabling a user to rapidly select musical items of content to be played.
In this kind of application each item of content will have been
categorised within the database by specific terms including many types of
`Genre`, `Composer`, Performer', `Instrumentation` and `Venue` etc. FIG.
8 shows such an application of the preferred embodiment in which a row of
buttons 611 provide the primary search input terms. The use of such
preset terms serves two purposes: It limits a users choices of search
terms to only those that have any relevance to the database items and
secondly prevents any problems due to misspelling and `typos`.

[0146] In this application the sequence of search terms selected by the
user is used to generate a concatenated sequence of queries on the host
system database which then returns a result consisting of those data
elements fitting the search criteria. These will be displayed as icons in
the Tagged icon carousel and matching text terms in the current Jukebox
list. The results are displayed and ordered according to the preset logic
set by the designers via the host system's graphic/Flash engine which
generates the onscreen objects and their motion. In this application of
the preferred embodiment a mouse is used for functional user interaction
such as mousing over, clicking and selecting tags and icons or initiating
Rotation of the tagged icon carousel. Any other form of user input device
or method suitable for the application, and outlined elsewhere in this
document may be used.

[0147] To initiate a search of the classical music catalogue the user
first clicks & selects one of the category buttons 611 in FIG. 8. A
corresponding query string is generated by the application software and
sent to the system database as shown in the flow diagram. This query
string might be of the form
"search.php?q=genre=chamber_music&subgenre=duo&composer=Mozart This would
correspond to a search for the genre of `Chamber Music and Mozart's
music--For example we will assume that the user has selected `Genre` for
the initial search term. The system responds by returning a number of
data elements which represent all `Genre` types in the database. Each
Genre is displayed as an icon (static graphic image) in the Tagged icon
carousel on the users screen and as an associated text item in a first
Jukebox list 616. The icons and text items are sorted or ordered by the
application logic into an alphabetic sequence with each group of icons
marked or associated by a tag displaying the appropriate alphabetic
character. In this scenario, there may be twenty or thirty or more icons
displayed in the tagged icon carousel, many of which would be obscured by
those appearing in front of them. This is where the utility of the `tags`
allows the user to locate at a glance, exactly where in the tagged icon
carousel, icons of interest are--in a non-tagged icon carousel such as
those mentioned in the prior art above, it would be almost impossible,
without examining each icon in turn, to locate icons specific to the
users enquiry. In fact carousels and similar `devices` are hardly ever
used with more than 10 icons present because it is extremely difficult or
impossible to visually identify individual icons due to the fact that
most of them are obscured by others overlaying them. However, in some
embodiments of the invention, the presence of the alphabetic tags
associated with each of the groups of alphabetically arranged icons in
the tagged icon carousel, allows the user to pinpoint at a glance the
location of any of these groups of icons in the Tagged icon carousel and
the boundaries between them.

[0148] Let's assume the user wishes to look for the specific genre of
Orchestral music. Having displayed all genres of music alphabetically,
the user immediately selects the `O` tag which causes the Tagged icon
carousel to rotate bringing all the icons associated with the letter `O`
(i.e. titles beginning with `O`) to the front position 615 of the tagged
icon carousel. If it is not immediately apparent which icon, now at the
frontal position represents `Orchestral`, a few clicks to rotate the
tagged icon carousel one way or the other will reveal the icon required.
Alternatively, the Tagged icon carousel may be rotated by user
interaction with the annotated scroller bar which can be used to rotate
the Tagged icon carousel in discrete single icon steps or return any
particular alphabetic group to the frontal position as if a Tag had been
selected. In this way the Tags and the annotations on the scroller bar
can be seen to be equivalent and yet complement each other. As such
rotation takes place, the first `Jukebox` list moves up or down,
mirroring the rotation of the tagged icon carousel. The items beginning
with `O` are moved to the middle of the first jukebox list and the
corresponding icons in the carousel are rotated to the front of the
carousel. The user can now see `Orchestral` near the front of the Tagged
icon carousel or near the middle of the Jukebox list from either of which
the user now selects `Orchestral`. This initiates a new query to the
database which returns icons and text items to repopulate the Tagged icon
carousel and a new Jukebox list. These are all the `Orchestral` music
items contained in the database. This new, second Jukebox list is
generated to the right of the first list. The second jukebox list
contains the same Orchestral items as text which now appear in the
updated Tagged icon carousel as icons.

[0149] The user can use the same workflow to refine the search further by
selecting another category button such as `Composer`. This action would
cause the Tagged icon carousel to display images of all the composers in
the database whose works were `Orchestral`. A third Jukebox list is
generated to the right of the previous one and now displays as text, the
names of the Composers who's works are in the orchestral group. This list
is headed `Orchestral sorted by Composer` shown in FIG. 8. The user can
decide to look through the third Jukebox list to find the composer of
interest or use the tags on the tagged icon carousel to quickly find the
Composer appropriate to his or her search. Each is equivalent to the
other. Let us further assume that `Beethoven` is the user's desired
composer of orchestral works on this occasion. Beethoven is easily
located amongst the possible 100 or more composers displayed in the
Tagged icon carousel simply by clicking the `B` tag which rotates the
tagged icon carousel to display the `B` composers at the front of the
carousel. This is seen in the middle list in FIG. 8. Had the user decided
to select from the Jukebox list he could have scrolled through the latest
list to find Beethoven's orchestral works.

[0150] The user could, using the same workflow, go on to refine the search
further by using the Performer, Venue or Ensemble selection buttons in
any order she or he wishes.

[0151] Using the `Jukebox` lists, the user could return immediately to any
previous node or level in his or her search and divert to a different
search path. For example, the choice of `Beethoven` could be changed at
any point to `Schubert` or any other composer simply by selecting it from
the list of Composers in the appropriate list.

[0152] In other applications of the preferred embodiment such as the case
of an online retail catalogue, more than one parameter may be revealed by
the tags. The system designers might choose to display `shoes` by size,
numerically displayed and ordered on each tag and also by tag
colour--Thus revealing which colours where available in which sizes. In
another application such as a TV or Radio electronic programming guide,
programs may be displayed by channel number numerically ordered or
sequentially by time of broadcast. In all these cases the choice of tag
characters and their ordering will be dictated by the nature of the
particular application and the art, skill and culture of the designers.

[0153] Having selected an icon (data element) suitable to the user's
purpose or task using the method outlined in this preferred embodiment or
another embodiment of the invention, the user may then initiate a further
action according to the requirements of the particular application in
which the embodiment is embedded. This might include but not be limited
to: play this video; order shoes of this size and colour; order this drug
for patient; Call this contact; change system state to this value;
navigate to this function or page etc. The purpose of each application
and the artistry of its designers will dictate the actions that a user
may follow having successfully used the embodiment.

[0154] Generally, the links between icons and tags are arranged to be such
that tags are always visible and clearly linked to the icons with which
they are associated even though the icons to which they are attached are
frequently obscured by other icons in front of them. The links or lines
between tags and icons may be visible or invisible depending on aesthetic
considerations but the actual association may be revealed by some other
means such as highlighting as a tag is moused over or interacted with by
a user interaction device. Tags will follow the icons to which they are
associated or linked and in this way can be understood as a powerful
dynamic visual indexing system. Users will be able to see at a glance how
tags and their associated icons are contextually organised and will be
able to locate and select at a glance, individual relevant icons or areas
where icons of interest will be located within the whole display even
though there may be a large percentage of icons with visual content
partially or fully obscured by overlying icons.

[0155] Another facet of the preferred embodiment's behaviour is its
ability to `contract` into a minimised form. Unlike the minimised
`Windows` of many current operating systems and other applications which
can be reduced to a small icon on the screen with a mouse click and which
do not then retain any functionality other than the ability to be
expanded again or `turned off`, the `contracted` Tagged icon carousel can
be significantly reduced in size on a user's screen but retains many
useful navigational and search functions including the display of its
current state and its continued responsiveness to user interaction. In
the contracted form the Tagged icon carousel's utility is to free up
screen area for the display of other content, media players or other
applications not relying on the comprehensive search or navigational
functionality of the full sized Tagged icon Carousel. FIG. 9b shows a
tagged icon carousel in its contracted mode. This is simply the normal
tagged icon carousel effectively seen from an `Edge On` viewpoint. In
this mode the tags may be turned off in order to recover the screen area
they occupy. Also shown in the diagram is the scroller bar which can be
used to supplement or replace the missing tags if screen area is an
important concern to the designer in this mode. In contrast it can be
seen from FIG. 9a that an edge on carousel without tags or annotated
scroller bar, provides no clue to the user as to the location of icons
not visible at the front.

[0156] Speed and direction of scrolling or rotation may be a function of
and controlled by the position of the users cursor in relation to a
particular scale (within the display) or origin (fixed point) or it may
be a preset function set by the designers who implement an embodiment of
the invention--The user may also be given some control by modifying user
preferences within the application.

[0157] Further embodiments of the invention include but are not limited
to: A tagged icon device comprising a plurality of tagged icon carousels
arranged in a 3D concatenated multiple level hierarchical sequence of
said icon & tag systems, known as `parent and child` arrangements. These
permit users to select an icon in a particular carousel and generate from
this a new `child` carousel on a users screen as shown in FIG. 6--each
new tagged icon device representing a further consecutive level of
navigation, search or sort tree node; A tagged icon device comprising a
linear array or grid of tagged icons shown in FIG. 10; Concentric or
Co-axial tagged icon carousels as shown in FIG. 7a & FIG. 7b

[0158] While some preferred embodiments of the invention have been
illustrated and described, it will be clear that the invention is not
limited to these embodiments only. Numerous modifications, changes,
variations, substitutions and equivalents will be apparent to those
skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the
inventions as described in the claims. In addition certain elements
described may be omitted or made optional when not deemed appropriate for
a particular application

[0159] Those skilled in the art will appreciate that an embodiment of the
invention can utilise any method in the prior art to generate the
elements that comprise the embodiment.

[0160] The method of and data to be displayed in the annotated scroller
device described above may be modified to provide an alternative
representation to the user of the structured information presented in the
tagged icon assembly or device. Alternatively the annotated scroller
shown in FIG. 4 may graphically present a related or derived data set
which enhances the user's search or activity experience.

[0161] The series of multiple text based lists and/or word assemblies
(Jukebox)--will generally represent the hierarchical ordering of a users
search path or possible system activity states. The actual ordering of
the data elements listed in each list will be consequent on the
particular embodiment.

[0162] Each new jukebox list may display a filtered or sorted subset of
the previous list's data set.

[0163] In the same way that interacting with the tags in the tagged icon
assembly will cause a system state change such as selection of icons &
rotation of the device, interacting with the annotation of the annotated
scroller device such as clicking and selecting a character may be enabled
by the system designer to cause the same or a related action to occur.
This will form an enhanced and useful alternative method for the user to
interact with the tagged icon assembly.

[0164] Additional uses for the system include Chapters and indexing in
online and offline presentation of ebooks and other complex documents.

[0165] The tagged icon assembly is understood to include the tagging of
any animated ordered arrangement of icons or images to be presented to a
user by the method described in this patent.

[0166] The data to be presented to a user may be derived internally to the
host system or externally from a remote source or data repository or
memory storage device via a network or other wired or wireless means.

[0167] The second subsystem forming a principle part of the preferred
embodiment of the invention and described earlier in this document being
a hierarchic, multiple, interactive, dynamic integrated text based list
or word assembly system in which the users interaction or selection can
form the filter or sort input to query the database concerned--the result
of which is displayed in the tagged icon assembly described. Other forms
of interactive text, character or symbolic assemblies and lists may be
used in order to input such queries and actions including but not limited
to `drop down` lists, faceted search lists, tagclouds or other word
assembly systems and are to be considered as included within the breadth
of some embodiments of the invention.

[0168] The sorting, filtering and other actions that can be carried out by
the second subsystem (Jukebox) may be supplemented by additional controls
that enable the icons and their associated tags to be displayed according
to different `Sort` requirements. For instance, in the example given of a
classical music searching system, the displayed works of a particular
composer could be sorted according to opus number, alphabetically by
title or conductor etc. Each choice would enable a change of tags to be
displayed according to the users chosen criteria. These choices could be
made available to the user using a simple drop down list or other simple
method of displaying options to a user and forming part of some
embodiments of the invention.